Though it may seem far-fetched this sunny Saturday morning, future historians could judge that the wives and girlfriends, so long the objects of prurience and mockery, were indirectly the catalyst of a significant realignment.

The expression on Rajbir's face, what Amrita can see through his beard, is one of gleeful prurience—Rajbir knows that after the number these women are his to do with as he pleases—Rajbir pleases much—he elongates the O in snOwing and blOwing to an uncomfortable degree and Amrita shivers in the dusty snow.

And so by making these assertions, they drag in the cold specters of prurience and judgment and demand that we view these unarguably beautiful things – playful joy being derived from an act of nurture, the determination of two hearts to be joined in committed love – through a chilly hateful fog.

A decade ago, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, two grandees of American journalism, warned of a crisis: The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal had revealed a news media publishing at "warp speed," discarding probity for prurience and embracing a non-stop news cycle of aggression, allegation and assertion where once facts were checked and sources confirmed before ministering scandal to the public.